


Soulmates Are Complicated

by BookGirlFan, Chimeraspeak



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Gen, Platonic Soulmates, Podfic, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Available, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-06-22 05:24:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15574722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookGirlFan/pseuds/BookGirlFan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chimeraspeak/pseuds/Chimeraspeak
Summary: aka, why Sam's life is simultaneously the best and the worst thing ever.





	Soulmates Are Complicated

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to ES Wright and Misprint Marauder for their invaluable help and encouragement. This would never have been finished without you!

Streaming link [here](http://pod-together.parakaproductions.com/2018/Soulmates%20Are%20Complicated.mp3)

\-----------

Everyone knew about soulmates.    
  
Everyone had heard of someone with a soulmate, or had a friend of a friend who actually had one of their own. The media loved to speculate on it, which celebrities had one and who it was. Big stars like Tony Stark and Khloe Kardashian showed up in magazines every other week in blurry photographs ‘proving’ they had a soulmark, and speculating on whose name it was. Nearly every celebrity was rumoured to have at least one, regardless of how rare soulmates actually were.    
  
Only one in ten thousand people ever had a soulmate, and Sam had never even hoped he’d been one of them. Sure, when he’d been sixteen and in love for the first time he’d wished he could touch her and make a soulmark appear, but he’d never really thought it would. That only happened in fairytales, and when they’d broken up six months later he’d been glad of it.

Everyone knew soulmates were forever and, at sixteen, he hadn’t been ready for that kind of commitment. Even now it sounded like too much. How could there ever be a person out there that he would meet once and know that it was a relationship that would last forever? Fairytales were fictional for a reason.

Unless, apparently, you were Captain America. 

It kind of made sense, really. Sam had grown up with Captain America comics, his father’s whole collection, so even though he knew that Captain America was real, he still felt like a story. Secret experiments and a quest for the perfect soldier? Yeah, that had comic book written all over it. Even once he heard it from the man himself he still didn’t believe it.

But that’s getting ahead of things. 

When Sam woke up on the morning he met Captain America, it looked just like any other morning. Sun just starting to creep over the horizon, dewdrops undisturbed on the grass, a bit of a chill in the air – a normal early morning. He’d always been a morning person, something that had irritated his squad mates to no end. Mornings just had that freshness to them. 

As soon as he was dressed he was out the door, wanting to start his run before the sun had really started rising. Starting in the dark and seeing the sun slowly rise through the sky as he ran across the city was the perfect way to start the day. If he wanted to overthink it, as he was currently tempted to do as he ran down the quiet streets, he’d  might say it represented hope rising even in the darkest of times, but he’d never really been that sentimental. All that mattered was that it was an invigorating start to the day, and starting this early meant that there was no one else around to disturb him.

Of course, that was when a voice came from behind him.  “On your left.” 

Weird, but not imposssible. Just because most people didn’t choose to go running at early o’clock didn’t mean there was nobody else who understood the appeal. Sam continued on his run, brushing off the odd occurance. 

Which would have been easier if the  _ exact same thing _ hadn’t happened just minutes later. 

Sam stared at the blond head rapidly fading into the distance. He couldn’t be sure, but it looked like the same guy as last time. That couldn’t be possible, right? No one could actually run that fast, not unless they were some kind of Olympic athlete! 

‘ _ Or superhero _ ,’ his brain whispered, and Sam’s childhood of comics came back to haunt him in the form of every image of Captain America, tall, blond, and capable of amazing superhuman feats. 

Too bad none of the comics mentioned he was such a  _ troll _ . 

By the third time it happened, Sam was sick of it. Didn’t Captain America have better things to do than  _ literally _ running circles around him? How fast could the guy run, if he’d already overtaken Sam  _ three _ times?!

He sped up, trying to keep up with him, but couldn’t manage it. There was just no way he could run that fast. Instead, he kept jogging through the city until he reached one of his favourite parks, then collapsed gratefully under a tree. 

He panted, hand pressing against the stitch in his side. He hadn’t meant to run that far, but being overtaken like that had just kept bugging him, and that it was  _ Captain America  _ doing it - he couldn’t just give up on a challenge like that.

“Need a medic?” Captain America’s voice came from behind the tree. 

Sam glanced over at him, then laughed. If he’d wanted to be a challenge, he’d utterly failed. The man wasn’t even out of breath! Much unlike himself. “I need a new set of lungs.” He gestured out to the path where they’d both just been running. “Dude, you just ran, like, thirteen miles in thirty minutes. 

Captain America stayed standing over him, saying with all apparent seriousness, “Guess I got a late start.” 

Sam laughed again. As far as meeting your heroes went, this was pretty good. “Really? You should be ashamed of yourself. You should take another lap.” He pointed out towards the path, gesturing off into the distance, before turning back to Captain America. “Did you just take it? I assume you just took it.”

“What unit you with?” 

Sam didn’t blink at the sudden change in conversation. “58th Pararescue. But now I’m working down at the VA. Sam Wilson.” He reached a hand up to the other man.

“Steve Rogers.”

Just as their hands touched his wrist started to itch, like a feather had been brushed gently against it. From the speed that Steve released his hand, Sam guessed that the same had happened to him. 

Sam glanced down at his wrist, fingers scratching idly, then stilled. There was a name written on his wrist in an old-fashioned font, as clear as if he’d written it there himself. 

_ Steve Rogers. _

  
  



End file.
